The Okapi Reserve

Category: Ranger Patrols | Date: Apr 23 2007 | By: admin

The anti - poaching operation in my Reserve ended on July 2006. It consisted to fight poachers and sweeps all sectors uncontrolled for years because of the war in the surrounding region of the Reserve, and the second phase was to eject all illegal miners out of the Reserve. An operation order was signed by the high Military hierarchy of the Province. We shall be ungrateful to not let you know that this operation was sponsors by the emergency fund of UNESCO. Below the mixed contingent .

Mixed team : Rangers et militaries ready for operation.

I wonder what is the main reason that people are determined destroying ecosystem?? Is It poverty?, if so ; but it does not mean We are not supposed to respect the Law of the country.

At all, the result of the operation was fine while:

• fire arms confiscated ,
• A big quantity of bush meat confiscated and burnt
• poachers arrested were transferred to court at Bunia and condemned for more than 5 years,

AK47 confiscated

Bush meat confiscated and burnt

10 AK magazines with 300 amunition confiscated

I mentioned that the 2nd target of the mission was to see how to eject all miners out of the reserve, really It was serious because 90 % of those mining camps belonged to traditional chief, and They did not like to let go of this activity because It was their source of gaining money and survive. In order to protest this high decision , those chief prepared an anti campaign by intoxicating local community, and some pygmies of their jurisdiction and advanced them to fabric arrows which could be used to attack the contingent. Fortunately, We had disciplined guys, and they succeeded destabilizing those pygmies installed around mining camps.

One of the Responsible of illegal miners in the Reserve

Contingent burning Muchacha mining camp

poisoned arrows to attack rangers and militaries,macheties,and spades used to exploit gold

Gold mining activity in a protected area is totally forbidden by the conservation Law in DRCongo, but not easy to be understood.

After the mixed operation, an aerial survey was conducted inside the Reserve with the aim to discover any reopening mining, poachers camp,… and also for discovering some attractive site such us Inselberg in the North, Edo (saline) in the Center and South of the Reserve , this allows the management to plan pedestrian patrol,…. and boosting tourism in the Reserve, so this is the result of the exploration.

Edo Boea ( natural water point ): 3 forest buffalows , and 1 Bongo antilop observed

The Aketu North Inselberg

Letu river flows inside the rainforest of the Reserve

In summary, We would like to let you know that the task We are given is sometimes undermined by some people which their interest are directly touched , so our appeal is to wake up all conservationists to come in help ,and conserve together the nature of DRCongo in general, and in particular of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve.

Somba

Technorati : epulu, okapi. wildlifedirect